BURBANK – Bolingbrook and Plainfield South had to do more waiting around than either team would have liked Tuesday night -- their Windy City Ram Classic semifinal starting more than an hour late after lightning delayed the doubleheader opener between Bremen and St. Laurence.

The two sides handled the situation with different levels of success.

Bolingbrook, ranked no. 25 in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, maintained its intensity, ready to redeem themselves after suffering their first loss of the season, a 6-3 defeat to Plainfield North, 24 hours earlier.

“We were glad we got to play again right away,” senior midfielder Mauricio Bahena said. “(Monday), the boys just had a bad day. Everyone has a bad day, and we were ready to bounce back. We put that game behind us, said this was a new day and a new game, and we came out ready to play.”

Plainfield South, however, started slow when the match finally got going.

“I felt like we came out a little flat,” Cougars coach Bryant Williams said. “Sitting around waiting certainly didn’t play to our advantage, but those things happen. Both teams had to wait, both teams had to deal with it, but for whatever reason we were the ones that came out flat. We gave up a couple early goals that we probably shouldn’t have.”

Bolingbrook put its early energy to good use, scoring twice in the opening 18 minutes and going on to a 3-0 win at Reavis.

The Raiders (4-1-0) advanced to take on Bremen (4-0-0) in the championship game of the 32-team tournament, which is set for noon Monday at Toyota Park.

It’ll be Bolingbrook’s first appearance in the final since the Raiders won the event in 2014.

“We’ve come close to getting back a couple times, and now we’ve finally done it,” Bolingbrook coach Jamie Clemmons said. “We’re excited to play Monday.”

Clemmons said the Raiders were receptive to the coaching points he made after Monday’s 6-3 loss.

“We were coming off the really bad loss, so we wanted to put that away,” he said. “You always have one of those during the year that’s a head-scratcher, so hopefully we got that one out of the way.

“I told the guys that we needed to combine, play to feet. We were caught up in trying to play it long too much (Monday). We came out and got the two goals and both of them were because we combined and found feet.”

Senior midfielder Angel Terrazes provided the first strike in the 11th minute, taking a pass from Cristian Guzman and ripping a shot from 25 yards over the head of Plainfield South goalkeeper Nick Beemster.

“I just saw an open shot, and I had to take it,” Terrazes said. “I just tried it. It was a good shot, and when it went in I was really excited.

“We knew we had to win this game. We were fired up. We want to go all the way and win this tournament.”

Bahena, Chicagoland Soccer’s Man of the Match, was a force in the midfield throughout the contest.

He stretched the Raiders lead to 2-0 in the 18th minute, working a pretty give-and-go with Guzman before putting away a shot from 12 yards.

“I saw the open space, played a give-and-go, took the open space and ran as fast as I could,” he said. “I’ve been playing with Cristian for a while now, so we know what to do. We play off each other and support each other.”

After the sluggish start, facing a 2-0 deficit seemed to wake up the Cougars, but they found themselves snakebitten on some chances late in the first half.

In the 20th minute, Plainfield South’s Gabe Sandoval ripped a hard shot from 20 yards off the crossbar. Ernesto Cortina pounced on the rebound but couldn’t connect cleanly on the bouncing ball. He got off a soft shot, and Bolingbrook goalkeeper Oscar Leon was able to recover and make the save.

The Cougars were again denied by the crossbar 12 minutes later when Miki Derka banged a shot off it. The ball came down off the bar just in front of the goal line and bounced out.

“The first half, we were going at them,” Williams said. “We had a couple balls off the frame, a couple other close chances. We had some opportunities. I like the way we battled in the first half.

“In the second half, I was disappointed with the way we played.”

Bolingbrook again took control at the start of the second half, and Julian Pacheco’s lofted shot from 40 yards went over Beemster’s head and in to make it 3-0.

The Cougars could not mount a serious threat at a comeback the rest of the way.

“They did a good job trying to exploit us over the top in the first half,” Clemmons said. “We did a good job adjusting so they couldn’t do that in the second half.

“Plainfield South plays hard, though. Bryant always has them ready to go. We knew they were going to battle us until the end.”

Anthony Marmolejo had the Cougars’ lone shot on goal in the second, a 25-yarder in the 69th minute that Leon stopped for his third and final save.

Beemster also made three saves for Plainfield South.

Williams was unhappy to see his team accumulate yellow cards.

“We’ve got to learn that when we get behind, we’ve got to still play soccer,” he said. “I thought we were over the hump with the mental toughness thing, but tonight we get five yellow cards. I let the boys know that we can’t let that happen again. That’s just not conducive to winning games.”

The Cougars and Raiders are scheduled to meet again Sept. 11 in Bolingbrook.

“If the guys aren’t fired up for that game, I’m not sure what they’ll be fired up for,” Williams said.

Plainfield South (3-1-0) plays at East Aurora on Thursday then hosts St. Laurence in the Windy City Ram Classic third place match on Saturday.

“We have to lick our wounds a little bit and get back at it on Thursday,” Williams said. “We can’t let one loss turn into another one.”